Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, DC June 20, 2000
(Phone: 202/358-1979)
John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
(Phone: 650/604-5026)
RELEASE: 00-97
SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT SELECTS NASA FOR VIRTUAL REALITY STUDY
A synthetic airport, created in the computer mind of a two-
story NASA simulator, will help San Francisco airport, one of the
country's largest and most complex, plan changes to increase its
efficiency.
The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) Commission has
selected NASA's FutureFlight Central, the world's only walk-in,
full-scale, 360-degree airport simulator, to evaluate new tower
positions, runway configuration and aircraft movements before new
construction begins.
"NASA's FutureFlight Central hopes to save airports costly
design errors by permitting them to easily experience different,
highly realistic versions of their airport design and, most
importantly, observe how real people work inside these future
environments," said Dr. Paul Kutler, deputy director of the NASA
Ames Information Systems Directorate.
The virtual simulator is located at Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, CA, about 25 miles south of San Francisco. The
facility can house as many as a dozen air traffic controllers, and
it can represent the busiest U.S. airport towers in size and
capability.
"NASA's FutureFlight Central allows SFO to preview potential
tower locations before any concrete is poured," said Peg Devine,
Deputy Airport Director for SFO's Air Field Development Bureau.
"This is part of SFO's continuing commitment to deploy the
appropriate technology advances to address our rising air
passenger levels as well as decrease delays."
Airport officials say they chose the NASA simulator to help
plan airport changes to increase both efficiency and total air
traffic capacity. Using the one-of-a-kind airport testing
facility, SFO airfield planners, Federal Aviation Administration
air traffic controllers and others will help to select the best
location for a new tower.
"Engineers can identify future problems and can try solutions
in a safe setting, the computer's virtual world," said Nancy
Dorighi, who manages the facility at Ames.
The simulator's artificial world changes in real time.
Scenes evolve, in the same manner that real-world changes occur.
In the computer world, airplanes not only come and go, but weather
changes. Consoles are at each controller's location showing
radar, weather maps, runway lights and touch-screen controls as
well as other readouts.
"We are able to represent any airfield in existence or as
planned for the future," said Dorighi. "We can measure the impact
of a change on the airport's capacity, and let the controllers try
it first-hand, all before anything is built."
After putting a new airport data set into the computers,
FutureFlight researchers can switch to the new artificial airport
in moments. Rearranging furniture in the simulator will take
longer than activating a new computerized airport, NASA
technicians noted.
Other unique features of NASA FutureFlight Central include:
capability to move the tower "eye point" to any location,
including a "pilot eye view"; precise controls to simulate
weather, time-of-day, cloud coverage and lighting; a voice and
data communication network, allowing ground-to-tower and air-to-
tower human interaction; and video record and playback, allowing
analysis of human performance and decisions. More FutureFlight
information is on the Internet at:
http://ffc.arc.nasa.gov
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